There was a moment in Tete Yengi\u2019s first time speaking with the media since being called into the Socceroos where a reporter asked him to look behind him at a banner that has been put up at their training ground in Oakland.<\/p>\n
It features some true Australian greats: Lucas Neill, Mark Bresciano, Brett Emerton, Tim Cahill, Brett Holman, Aaron Mooy, Mark Viduka, Manfred Schafer \u2013 and the moment Aziz Behich sent this 2026 squad to the World Cup.<\/p>\n
Yengi looked back at those faces as he was asked what it means to become a Socceroo.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s crazy. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s really sunk in yet,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are so many great players that have played for this country, some of my idols.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just grateful for the opportunity. Hopefully I can get on the pitch, I\u2019m still uncapped.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing my first call-up has come at a World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThere\u2019s guys here like Maty Ryan, Jackson Irvine, Awer Mabil \u2013 he\u2019s someone I\u2019ve watched since I was really young at Adelaide United.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo to be here with him, sharing the pitch with him, all of them, Mathew Leckie as well, these players have been to many World Cups so I\u2019m just trying to take as much information as I can from them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the pitch, off the pitch, anything to help build myself and get the experience and hopefully bring it onto the pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, there will be few players at this tournament who have emerged so late into their team\u2019s preparation for football\u2019s biggest stage as Yengi.<\/p>\n
It was barely six months ago that the striker was sent out on loan by his Scottish club Livingston to J.League outfit Machida Zelvia.<\/p>\n
\u201cFootball is crazy. A lot can happen in six months,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was enjoying my time in Scotland, even though things weren\u2019t going so well, I was still playing week in week out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I got the call from Japan, I thought it was an opportunity I can\u2019t let go. I took it and thankfully it worked out. The people over there are great, my teammates, my coaches, I\u2019m really enjoying it over there.\u201d<\/p>\n
In that period, Yengi has starred for Machida Zelvia in Japan\u2019s top flight and played a key role in helping them reach an AFC Champions League Elite final.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He described that game as \u2018crazy\u2019 and the atmosphere \u2018ridiculous\u2019, adding \u201cI haven\u2019t seen that before, hopefully the games here will be a bit like that!\u201d<\/p>\n
Uncapped heading into this tournament, Yengi looks set to join his brother Kusini in becoming a Socceroo.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was very excited for me, probably a bit disappointed with himself not getting the opportunity,\u201d he said when asked about his brother\u2019s reaction to his selection.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019m here on his behalf so yeah I\u2019m looking forward to enjoying my time here and hopefully playing my first World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026 He\u2019s just really happy for me. My mum as well, my dad, everyone is really happy. It is everyone\u2019s dream to come to the World Cup, so I\u2019m grateful to be here.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately he couldn\u2019t be here through his injuries. I would have liked to be here with him. Maybe the next one, let\u2019s see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yengi arrives at this World Cup after a unique journey that has taken him from South Australia\u2019s NPL, to England\u2019s League Two as well as stints in Finland, Scotland and now Japan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think football is a journey. Only some players stay at one club,\u201d he reflected.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had the opportunity to move around to numerous clubs and countries, I\u2019m grateful for that experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s helped me as a player and as a person. I\u2019ve taken bits from everywhere I\u2019ve been and kinda put that together and it\u2019s made me who I am today. So yeah, I\u2019m grateful for that experience so far.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old has some familiar faces around him in Nestory Irankunda and Mohamed Toure, who he has known for over a decade, having grown up in Adelaide.<\/p>\n
While they play the same position, Yengi is hoping he gets the chance to share the pitch with Toure at some point during this tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very close to each other. We speak almost every day. Even when we\u2019re not here.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve grown up with Mo. I\u2019ve known him since I was maybe 12 and he was 8. So we\u2019ve grown up together with the whole Toure family. We\u2019re just grateful and happy to be here together.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just gonna enjoy the moment every day in training and hopefully we can maybe be on the pitch together. That would be an amazing moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was a moment in Tete Yengi\u2019s first time speaking with the media since being called into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85329,85,345124],"class_list":["post-709821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-mohamed-toure","tag-sports","tag-tete-yengi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}